WTVM.com and WTVM News Leader 9, Columbus, GA | Wife of Ft. Benning Soldier Against the Recording Industry

Wife of Ft. Benning Soldier Against the Recording Industry

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, the Recording Industry Association of America claims Laura Beer illegally downloaded music on Kazaa, a peer-to-peer file sharing network.

Court documents show the user profile Beer supposedly used, under the name "Hill-13-E." Beer's attorney says the account does not belong to her.

"They have no knowledge of who Hill-13-E is, actually they had no knowledge of what Kazaa was, they've never had an account," said Michael Caldwell, Beer's lawyer for the case.

Caldwell also says Laura Beer isn't the only person, in his words "victimized" by the RIAA.  A website called "The Recording Industry Versus The People" shows all the current cases the association has pending.

"They have been conducting a side business, I would call it, and organized scheme of quasi-legalized extortion and they are working it against ordinary persons like Mrs. Beers. We are talking about a lady who's husband is going to Iraq and who has two young kids," said Caldwell.

According to Caldwell, IP addresses on a computer can be copied or spoofed, and the RIAA's practice of tracing illegal downloads by IP address is not an accurate way of determining who downloads what.

Evidence from the company who handles investigations over the internet for the RIAA, Media Watcher, has been thrown out before in previous cases in Europe.

WTVM tried contacting the RIAA earlier today, but efforts were unsuccessful.